Graffiti along San Jose highways quickly removed when the right person asks

In politics, those who hold the purse strings get to pull the levers of power. In Assemblywoman Nora Campos' case, the San Jose Democrat's position on the budget and appropriations committees translated to quick work on a long-standing and vexing problem: graffiti-covered highway signs.

San Jose City Council members -- her brother, Xavier, occupies her former seat on the council -- had complained at an early April meeting that the state had been slow to move on cleaning up freeway signs, saying it was taking months to get any response.

But Campos, the Assembly speaker pro tem, got an immediate one after raising the issue of a series of defaced highway signs on Interstate 280 and Highway 101, as well as graffiti on railroad overpasses, at a budget subcommittee on transportation April 10. She sent photos of the signs to Caltrans officials the next day.

The most-defaced signs were at the Tully Street and Story Road exit on southbound 101. If you wanted to get off at the Story Road exit, you might miss the turnoff because the signs were so unreadable.

Ten days later, those and two other signs, the worst of the bunch, had been scrubbed clean.

"When you have the department's budget in your hands and the director sitting in front of you in a public hearing looking at pictures of freeway signs that can't be read," Campos said, "you are going to see quick action."

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She even got a letter back from Caltrans, which said the operation required multiple lane closures and exit ramp "configuring and monitoring." They applied anti-graffiti coating and offered to order new signs, which, they warned, can take up to a year to replace. Caltrans also is reviewing whether a catwalk should be removed; if not, "we will explore installing other deterrents such as pedestrian fencing or expanded wing walls."

Talk about personal service!

At a hearing last week, Campos thanked Malcolm Dougherty, the director of Caltrans, for getting the job done so quickly, then told him she "looked forward to hearing back" from him on the heavily tagged Union Pacific and Amtrak properties.

Internal Affairs is an insider's view of South Bay politics. For the full May 26 column, including items about why Meg Whitman doesn't want to be queen, and a 'brothel' of newspaper advertisements, click here.